MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The death toll from an attack by Islamist militants on a hotel in the Somali capital rose to at least 15, police said as fighting continued into early Saturday, with loud explosions heard overnight.

Al Shabaab fighters blasted and shot their way into the popular Hotel Maka Al Mukaram on Friday afternoon, trapping many government officials.

Security personnel, led by a unit from the elite U.S.-trained special forces troops known as “Gaashaan” (Shield) stormed the hotel on Friday evening and fought the attackers into Saturday.

“At least 15 people died including Somalia’s ambassador to Geneva, and at least 20 others were wounded,” Colonel Farah Aden, a senior police officer at the scene, told Reuters.

“Those who died include civilians, hotel guards and government soldiers.”

Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, said they had targeted only government officials.

“We killed those who belonged to the government and released the civilians,” he told Reuters by phone.

Journalists and paramedics were barred from entering the hotel grounds on Saturday and were only allowed to watch from its gate. A Reuters photographer said the siege seemed to have subsided, with security forces searching the rooms for fighters and booby traps.

Streets surrounding the hotel were sealed off by government and African Union peacekeeping troops.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab was pushed out of the capital by African peacekeeping forces in 2011, but has kept up guerrilla-style attacks, looking to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of Sharia, or Islamic law, on the country.

An offensive launched last year by African Union forces along with the Somali army has driven the group out of its strongholds in central and southern Somalia, while a series of U.S. drone strikes have killed some of its top leaders.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; and Feisal Omar; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Kim Coghill)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Islamist militants blasted their way into a popular hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, killing at least seven people and trapping government officials inside, police and witnesses said.

Somali special forces broke through the compound wall and exchanged gunfire with fighters holed up in the main building of the Maka Al Mukaram hotel, said police.

Al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab, which has also launched gun and bomb attacks in neighboring Kenya and other countries, said its followers were responsible.

“The hotel is now fully under the control of the militants,” Major Ismail Olow, a Mogadishu police officer at the scene, told Reuters. “Al Shabaab fighters are on the top of the building and inside the hotel. It is not easy for us to go in.”

The remains of two destroyed cars could be seen at the gates of the hotel which was surrounded by police.

Officers said a unit of elite U.S.-trained special forces troops known as “Gaashaan” (Shield) had breached the hotel compound but were still trying to enter the building.

Al Shabaab was pushed out of the capital by African peacekeeping forces in 2011, but has kept up guerrilla-style attacks, looking to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of Sharia, or Islamic law, on the country.

An offensive launched last year by African Union forces along with the Somali army has driven the group out of its strongholds in central and southern Somalia, while a series of U.S. drone strikes have killed some of its top leaders.

Al Shabaab said they were still fighting inside the hotel.

“There is much casualty but we shall give details later,” the group’s military spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked a convoy carrying a Kenyan state governor near the Somali border on Friday, leaving him unharmed but wounding several people close to the spot where Islamists launched a string of deadly attacks last year, the army and media said.

Somali Islamist group al Shabaab said its fighters crossed into Kenya and killed four soldiers in an attack on a military convoy on Friday morning, without mentioning the governor.

“We killed four Kenyan soldiers. We burnt two military trucks and we also took one car from them,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operation spokesman told Reuters.

Al Shabaab has vowed revenge attacks against Kenya after it sent troops into Somalia where they are battling the al Qaeda-linked group as part of an African Union peacekeeping force.

Musab said the convoy traveling between Mandera and Wajir, two northeastern Kenyan towns close to the porous border with Somalia.

Kenya’s military said its forces had not been ambushed. “There was no attack (on a Kenya Defense Forces convoy), but there was an attack on the convoy of the governor of Mandera,” said David Obonyo, the Kenya Defense Force spokesman.

Kenya’s Daily Nation and Standard newspapers said armed men attacked a convoy transporting Ali Roba, the governor of Mandera region where al Shabaab killed more than 60 people last year.

Several people were wounded and one vehicle was hijacked but the governor was safe, the newspapers reported.

Roba has been urging the central government to improve security in the crime-ridden region awash with bandits and gunmen. Another convoy carrying him was attacked by an improvised explosive device in 2014.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – A suspected drone attack killed three members of Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist rebel group on Thursday in southern Somalia while they were driving in a car, residents said.

Al Shabaab made no immediate comment and there was no word from the United States, which has launched drone strikes in the past that have killed senior officials in the al Qaeda-affiliated group.

Residents said the attack took place at sunset around the village of Abaq Xaluul, about 25 km (16 miles) outside the town of Baardheere in the southern part of Somalia. Baardheere lies about 300 km (190 miles) east of Mogadishu.

“I was on the outskirts of Abaq Xaluul village when a car drove past me and soon I heard the huge blast from a drone ahead of me,” resident Hussein Nur told Reuters by telephone.

“I saw the car and the three men on board completely burnt and then many armed al Shabaab fighters driving in cars reached the scene,” he said.

Another resident from Baradheere, Ahmed Farah, gave a similar account, saying the three men in the car had been al Shabaab fighters. He did not identify them or say if they were senior al Shabaab members.

Last year, a U.S. unmanned aircraft killed Ahmed Godane, the then leader of al Shabaab, forcing the group to appoint a new chief. Last month, a U.S. missile strike killed Yusef Dheeq, blamed for masterminding attacks at home and abroad.

Al Shabaab has also been under pressure from a ground offensive of African Union peacekeeping troops and Somali soldiers which has driven the group out of strongholds, but it still holds smaller settlements and some rural areas.

Despite the setbacks, the group has continued to make bomb and gun attacks in the capital Mogadishu and other towns, including Baidoa, where it attacked a regional government headquarters on Thursday.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Islamist rebels detonated a car bomb at the entrance of a hotel in the Somali capital on Friday and then stormed inside where politicians had gathered, killing at least 10 people including a lawmaker and lightly wounding two ministers.

Al Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the attack, aims to topple the Western-backed federal government and impose its strict version of Islamic sharia law on the Horn of Africa nation that is struggling to rebuild after two decades of war.

The suicide attack targeted the Central Hotel around midday on Friday, typically a busy time for hotels as it is the Somali weekend. Ambulances wailed as they raced to the scene where a huge plume of smoke rose above the Indian Ocean coastal city.

“We are behind the attack,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters. “We targeted government officials in the hotel; this is part of our operation in Mogadishu.”

“First the car bomb exploded at the gate of the hotel, then a suicide bomber blew himself up in the hotel compound,” police Major Nur Mohamed told Reuters. “There were ministers and legislators inside the hotel.”

He said at least 10 people had been killed, including a lawmaker, security officers and civilians. “But the death toll may rise,” he added. Gunshots were heard for a short period inside the hotel after the attack.

A presidential spokesman said President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the assault as a “terrorist attack”.

Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye told a radio station that “many died” including a lawmaker and the deputy mayor of Mogadishu. He said more details would follow.

Al Shabaab once ruled much of Somalia but it has been slowly pushed out of strongholds across the country. However, its guerrilla-style gun assaults and suicide bombings continue to exert pressure on the government to improve security.

A military campaign launched by African Union peacekeeping forces and the Somali government forces last year ousted al Shabaab from Mogadishu in 2011 and from major coastal towns.

But persistent guerrilla-style attacks in Mogadishu, while less frequent, have complicated the government’s efforts to secure the nation for a referendum on a new federal constitution and a presidential election during 2016.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – A car bomber rammed the gate of a hotel in the center of the Somali capital on Friday where some ministers and lawmakers had gathered, and a suicide attacker then blew himself up inside the compound, police officers said.

Ambulances wailed as they raced to Central Hotel and a huge plume of smoke rose above the coastal city. It was not clear if anyone was killed but police said at least one lawmaker was among those injured.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the style of the attack was typical of the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which frequently targets officials in Mogadishu in its bid to bring down the Western-backed government.

“First the car bomb exploded at the gate of the hotel, then a suicide bomber blew himself up in the hotel compound,” police Major Nur Mohamed told Reuters.

“There were ministers and legislators inside the hotel. I have seen many people with injuries, including a lawmaker,” he said from the scene of the blast which struck around lunchtime on Friday, the weekend in Somalia when hotels tend to be busy.

Police reported gunshots coming from inside the hotel shortly after the attack, but said they soon stopped.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – A Somali lawmaker was killed in Mogadishu on Monday when al Shabaab gunmen sprayed his car with bullets, police and the militants said, the sixth such attack since the start of 2014.

The al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militants were pushed out of the capital by African peacekeeping forces in 2011 but have waged a series of gun and grenade attacks to try to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of sharia law.

Five lawmakers were killed last year by al Shabaab, which seeks to topple the Western-backed Mogadishu government and impose its own strict version of Islamic law.

Police officer Captain Osman Ali said lawmaker Abdullahi Qayad Bare was killed when militants fired on his car and then sped off.

“He died and the militants escaped in their car,” he said.

An offensive launched last year by African Union forces along with the Somali army has driven the group out of their strongholds in central and southern Somalia, while a series of U.S. drone strikes have killed some of its top leaders.

Despite the joint military campaign, al Shabaab has continued to strike with often devastating effect using hit-and-run bomb and gun attacks in the capital Mogadishu and in towns.

(Additional reporting by Abdirahman Hussein; Writing by Edith Honan; Editing by Edmund Blair and James Macharia)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – A suicide car bomb exploded at the gate of a Mogadishu hotel where Turkish delegates were meeting on Thursday, a day before a visit by President Tayyip Erdogan to the Somali capital.

At least two police officers were killed but none of the Turkish delegates were wounded in the attack, which was claimed by Islamist al Shabaab rebels, officials said.

Erdogan, who was in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on the first leg of an African tour when the bomb went off, appeared unfazed and said that whoever carried out the attack was not acting in the name of Islam.

“There has been a terrorist attack today in Somalia. What is this attack carried out for? If they are doing it in the name of Islam, there is no such thing in Islam,” he said at Addis Ababa University, where he was receiving an honorary degree.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said an investigation was under way to see if the Turkish delegation was deliberately targeted.

Al Shabaab, which has carried out attacks across east Africa including a 2013 raid on a Nairobi shopping mall that killed 67, claimed responsibility for the assault but did not mention the delegation or Erdogan.

Erdogan became the first non-African leader to visit Somalia in nearly 20 years when he travelled there in 2011, as Turkey’s prime minister.

Turkey is a key ally of the Somali government in efforts to rebuild after more than two decades of conflict and famine. It was a major contributor to the humanitarian aid effort at the height of the 2011 famine and Ankara continues to build hospitals and dispatch aid across Somalia.

There have been attacks on Turkish interests in Somalia before. In July 2013, a car loaded with explosives rammed into an office housing Turkish embassy staff in Mogadishu, killing three people. That attack was also claimed by al Shabaab.

MOGADISHU, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Somali Islamist militant group
al Shabaab on Wednesday praised al Qaeda over an attack on
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and urged further strikes
at the “heart of the Crusader enemies”.

Al Shabaab, which has itself carried out attacks across east
Africa, including a 2013 raid on a Nairobi shopping mall that
killed 67, described two brothers who attacked the magazine and
a third who targeted a Jewish shop, as “a wonderful example”.

“We encourage all Muslims, specifically the sons of Tawheed
living in Europe, to follow in the footsteps of their brothers,”
it said in a statement.

Two gunmen burst into Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris on
Jan. 7 and killed 12 people. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We…thank our brothers, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,
who have been – and continue to be – the pioneers of external
operations that target the heart of the Crusader enemies,” al
Shabaab said.

AQAP has recently focused on fighting government forces and
Shi’ite rebels in Yemen but says it still aims to carry out
attacks abroad. Western officials often cite AQAP as al Qaeda’s
most dangerous branch.

Al Shabaab said the magazine had insulted Islam by
repeatedly publishing cartoon images depicting the Prophet
Mohammad. Many Muslims view depictions of Mohammad as blasphemy.

The group is fighting African Union peacekeepers and a
Western-backed government in Somalia where it wants to impose
its own brand of strict sharia law across the country.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somalian al Shabaab militants attacked a military base in the outskirts of the town of Baidoa on Friday morning, killing at least seven soldiers, a Somali military official said.

The attack came two days after the United States said it had killed the chief of al Shabaab’s intelligence and security wing, Tahliil Abdishakur, in a drone strike. Al Shabaab seeks to topple the Western-backed Mogadishu government and impose its own strict version of Islamic law.

“Al Shabaab attacked our base unexpectedly, early in the morning today. We lost seven soldiers,” Captain Ahmed Idow, a Somali military officer, told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa.

Idow said Somali soldiers killed three al Shabaab insurgents during the attack.

A spokesman for al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab said the group had briefly seized the base and killed more than 10 soldiers. Al Shabaab often cites a higher death toll than the number given by officials.